Dead again.

The walls were lit up with floating decorations; ghostly colours that shone mysteriously against bleak walls. They gave the room an otherworldly air, turning gloom into something beautiful.1

Sharon smiled. She had made everything herself and felt an overwhelming sensation of pride for her effort. It looked perfect. Maybe something good could come out of this birthday after all. 2

Sharon had invited a fair amount, but only at the urging of her friends. They had amazingly all showed up and on time.3

‘That’s a first.’ She thought a little bitterly. It wasn’t often that the entire group came to the same party.4

Sharon watched silently as the shadows she had invited danced on the floor, eerily casting out their wings and trying to reach the sky, their mouths carved into soundless cries. They were such interesting creatures; she had worked the last year on learning about them. She wanted so badly to help. 5

But for them there was no escape. 6

Shadows were long ago bound to the earth, tied down by those they had displeased. Through daylight, they were cursed to follow their hosts, to act like copies; clones of the supernatural world. Their status was lower than dirt, for even mud has a shadow.7

But at night, a different story unfolded. When the dark had set in and lights were vanished, shadows could live; they made themselves a world from the night, a place where all their anger were reborn. The hours of darkness were when shadows could seek revenge, touching the mortal world with their own brand of justice.8

Shadows searched for those they could lead astray; off a cliff, through a river…Their voices howled with delight to see those they hated dying in front of them.9

Because one human dead gave another shadow its freedom.10

Not from the Earth, but from pain.11

Resentment and hatred is learned quickly by those mistreated by their jailers. Torture seemed to be encouraged through the human race; little ones step deliberately on their friend’s shadows, laughing like animals when they caught one off guard. Adults constantly run them through machines and buses, abusing something which they do not understand. 12

This was what warranted for revenge.13

Sharon pulled herself from her thoughts, glancing to the mirror. She flinched. Even after a year, it was still unnerving to see herself so translucent. The others around her were no different; bodies of transparent skin that still held a slight tinge of brown or white, faces exhausted by death but still made to live…if being a ghost was at all life.14

Sharon supposed she should be at least thankful for not looking like a ghost in the cartoons she used to watch when she was young; being a floating sheet would have been too hard to handle. As she was now gave her a sense of individuality, cutting her off from the rest.15

The hardest thing though, was that she could no longer talk to her family. Sharon remembered that day she had woken up in her bed and ran downstairs to tell her brother her dream about being murdered. He had looked through her like she was made of air. Sharon had tried touching his elbow and her hand had passed straight through him. Nothing was making sense to her, so she had raced back to her room and looked in the mirror. A horrible face had greeted her; half her skull had been smashed in, her left eye bulging comically from the force. Her bottom lip broken, as if someone had bitten on it hard enough to almost off. Knowing that she had cried then was difficult to admit; Sharon had always thought of herself steady.16

Now that time had passed, she was proud of her looks. She always grabbed a second glance and could command a good deal of attention in a crowd.17

Sharon tore her gaze from the mirror, heading toward the small stage that had been set up at Debbie’s old home. Catching her friend over by the microphone, she pulled her aside.18

“Are you sure this is alright?” Sharon asked loudly, sucking nervously on her bottom lip.19

“Of course!” Debbie replied with a shout. “Everyone is on holidays for the week, or I wouldn’t have offered! No one is going to coming home, so stop worrying!”20

“Alright…” Sharon said, obviously still not entirely convinced.21

“Stop it! Just enjoy yourself! This is your birthday after all.” Debbie pushed Sharon out towards the ‘ballroom’ floor.22

“But…!” Was all Sharon managed to get out before being swept up by the moving body of ghosts. She tried to escape the crowd, but it seemed that other ghosts were the only thing the dead couldn’t pass though. Reluctantly, Sharon merged in with the dancers, starting to move to the blasting music. 23

Soon she was dancing like everyone else, showing her skills off on the floor.24

‘Too bad ghosts can’t fly.’ Sharon thought as the music started to die down. ‘This would’ve been even better in the air…’25

A shadow crept up to her foot, its hands flickering from human shaped to claws, its mouth opening and closing as if it were trying to speak. With a start, Sharon knew something was wrong. Again she tried to push herself from the dance floor. This time she made it out.26

She headed back to the stage and grabbed the microphone from Debbie’s hand. “Everyone! Listen up!”27

The room turned deathly silent. Sharon hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.28

“As you know, today is my first birthday!” A collective cheer went up around the room, with repeated ‘Hip Hip! Hooray!’ noises echoing the cheers. Sharon waved them all to silence. “And I’m really glad you all came! It has been…so different to what I imagined.”29

“You thought we would all go and scare people for fun, didn’t you?” A voice shouted and a ripple of laughter followed.30

Sharon smiled. “Maybe. But now I have to tell you to go.”31

“What?!” Ghosts started to push forward, grumbling loudly.32

Sharon put her hands up. “Wait. I’ll explain. There’s a human in this house! A shadow told me!”33

“A shadow? Since when can they talk?”34

Sharon sighed. She just wanted them to go before something happened. “We all know how they hate humans! This shadow wouldn’t start pointing and gesturing to kill unless we had something here, near enough to us to make it mad! Now, get out!”35

“Stop.” A cold voice froze everyone. No one moved. “I thought so. Ghosts. And so many in the same area! What luck!”36

Sharon looked over the transparent sea to the very back of the room. In the doorway stood a tall man of about thirty. He wore black clothes suitable to a thief’s night raid and across his shoulder he had slung the rope he had used to get in. 37

“You can see us?” she whispered into the microphone.38

The man grinned. “And hear you too! Now,” he said as he scanned the room, “who would like to come with me…for a little experiment?”39

Panic raced through the ghosts. They began to fling themselves through walls, not caring who they hurt on the way out. The shadows slid back to the walls, melding into darkness. The area quietened down, leaving only Sharon, Debbie and the man.40

“So, you two girls are going to help me?”41

Sharon shook her head. “How can you see us?” she asked in confusion. Regaining her sense, she added, “You can’t hurt us. You’re only human!”42

The man laughed, a crazy edge hitting his voice. “Can’t hurt you? Can’t hurt you? Ghost, I can do whatever I want! Watch this!” The man’s hand travelled to his shirt pocket. From it he pulled a small vial of green liquid and a syringe. Using the needle, he drew some of the water out. “Watch this.” He whispered and ran towards Debbie.43

“No!” Sharon cried out.44

The man seemed surprised when he fell though Debbie, but the smile returned as he turned around and squirted her with the liquid.45

Debbie laughed. “We are dead. You can’t touch-” Debbie cut off as her hand started to turn to ice. “What’s happening?”46

The man sneered. “I found out something. You ghost’s aren’t made of only air after all, but a special set of molecules that bend around solids. That’s why you can move through solid objects. But this…this substance is an instant freezing liquid, giving your ‘body’ no time to meld around the ice.” He laughed again as Debbie hit the floor. “Perfect.”47

“What do you mean perfect?! She’s dead! You killed her a second time!”48

“And what are you going to do about it?”49

Sharon just stared. What could she do? Run? Fight?50

“I’ll…” She stopped as an icy sensation ran its way across her body. “What…” 51

“I got you too.” The man chuckled. “I have you too…”52

Sharon couldn’t move. Her body was freezing up beneath her. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She wasn’t supposed to die twice!53

“I’ll get you!” she mumbled before darkness over took her.54

You can't do this...55